Sunday, September 19, 2010

Day 19- A passage from a book that has touched you

Reading is such a passion that I thought picking a single passage would be really tough.     However, every time I sat to write this post my mind kept popping back to one particular passage.    I learned it in high school in literature class.    Mr. Odom was my literature teacher and had to be one of the best teachers I had in my educational experience.      I enjoyed reading before I went into his class, but I truly loved reading and knew how to experience books after I left his class.

I fell in love with Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Less Traveled" while in his class.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

Reading this poem resonated with me because it reminded me of the Scriptures from Matthew 7, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

I was at a pivotal point in my spiritual life during that year of high school.     I had received my driver's license only to have it snatched away from me for two years after having a life threatening grand mal seizure.      I was being constantly teased by one of my teachers for being a Christian.    The "thing" to do was to keep a book with a record of the things you had done for guys on Friday nights.    I didn't have a book.

I loved Robert Frost's poem, because it so beautifully expressed the choices I had made.     To take the road less traveled.

3 comments:

Stacy at Exceedingly Mundane said...

I've always loved that poem too. Wow, that's a horrible teacher. I can't believe a teacher would condone that type of behavior. I'm so glad I went to a "church" school :)

Allison said...

One of my favorite poems too D. Your choices have made you a BEAUTIFUL woman. =)

Ruth said...

I'm so sorry you experienced that at the hand of a teacher. It upsets me greatly when I hear about teachers doing such things since I am one!

I had never thought about the parallel being drawn between this poem and the "narrow gate" of Scripture. Seeing how Robert Frost was not a Christian, it is pretty neat that he wrote something that actually parallels the Word of God! Great insight.